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the Contagious Diseases Acts, is prohibited, the acts will at once become a dead letter, and the benefits which have undoubtedly been derived from their operation in the diminution of Venereal disease among the Troops will be entirely lost.
Compulsory Medical examination is the mainstay of the acts so far as their practical usefulness is concerned, the object being to detect disease in its earliest stage.
To make it voluntary would be tantamount to its abolition, would not merely be a retrograde step, but absolutely suicidal, and would undoubtedly tend to re-produce, foster, and perpetuate the worst form of Syphilitic disease, a form since the introduction and proper working of the Contagious Diseases Acts, now rarely met with.
The disastrous effect of such a measure on the health of Her Majesty's army, I consider to be in itself a sufficiently powerful argument against doing away with this compulsory examination.